They were in South Africa from early on as well (licenced under Bokomo). I was raised on the stuff there... The differences are subtle, but I can tell. It still gives me a crash at about 10am... there is admittedly much better breakfasts to have. (But not as nostalgic)﻿

Once you've learned one programming language or programming tool, it's pretty easy to get into another similar one. Sometimes, though, the fine differences are hard to remember. Hyperpolyglot is an awesome tool for looking up the differences and similarities between programming languages and tools.

Maybe, but I just skimmed the posix shell vs PowerShell comparison and much of the PowerShell stuff is missing, incomplete, or just wrong. That doesn't give me a lot of confidence for other comparisons.﻿

Rethinking the Narrative of Mars "Colonisation"Biologist Dr +DN Lee has been doing an amazing job educating on how enthusiastic narratives of "colonising" Mars are problematic. On her Twitter, Lee notes that the dominant ways of talking about colonisation add to the marginalisation of under-represented minorities in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). If we want to make science more inclusive, we need to better understand how the stories we tell about STEM may exclude and damage under-represented groups we are trying to support.

Not Just SemanticsLee notes that talking about Mars in terms of colonisation is not simply an issue of semantics - for example using "settlement" instead of colonising. Rather, media narratives unquestioningly champion rich White men's ideas about what Mars travel should mean: "we don't have to be stuck on Earth!" The narrative is being framed around "saving" humanity. (See a Storify of Lee's discussion for further context http://goo.gl/Ugg527)

Lee asks: saving from what, whom, and why? And in this re-imagining of humanity's salvation, who is left behind? Who does the dangerous, under-paid work of building new colonised spaces? In short, what have we learned from history about colonisation? It is rooted in exploitation and inequality. On Twitter, Lee writes:

"When I hear scientists discuss "for the good of humanity" I check who is talking and if they listen to "others." History AND Contemporary events have demonstrated how often people will exploit and harm 'others' when diverse ppl cant inform policy... If Mars will be better place (where the wealthy are clamoring to) & earth is the place to be "stuck", then WHO is stuck & w/ what resources... In human history there's a profound diff in exploration, recon, even trading with other peoples vs Imperialism, conquering & colonization...Thing is, when Some of us hear Colonization, Enterprise Expansion, New wealth acquisition, we have a VERY different Movie trailer playing"

Lee is clear that space exploration is not the problem; she is questioning the context of talking about Mars as a place to colonise, as a way to escape problems on Earth, which have arisen as a result of colonial practices in the first place.

White Male Privilege in STEM NarrativesLee demonstrates that White male entrepreneurs encourage the public to give up on our responsibilities on Earth, both environmentally and socially. They do so in ways that mirror the colonisation of Indigenous cultures.

Lee shows that this Mars narrative is exclusionary. The reaction to her discussion amplifies this exclusion.

White male space enthusiasts have been arguing back at Lee on Twitter, saying that Mars represents an opportunity to start over; to get social justice right. They tell her that if she continues to be "negative," she will miss out on the opportunity to engage with the future of space science, because the public will turn off her. One White man even said to Lee the equivalent of: We need women like you on Mars to procreate! (As if women's special place in this brave new world is solely to reproduce, rather than her scientific practice and the leadership she is demonstrating.)

Former NASA engineer Homer Hickam was one of the men who dismissed Lee's conversation as "silly." Hickam is someone Lee says she looked up to (Hickam's life story inspired the movie October Sky starring Jake Gyllenhaal). She tried to engage him in a discussion about why the points of view of people of colour (POC) matter. She discussed colonialism and White male privilege. For example, his views as a White man dominate STEM, but her views as woman of colour are dismissed.

Hickam responded that he is proud that his ancestors had social privilege because that means they were successful and earned their place in colonised spaces (!). He even evoked a long-lost Native American ancestor to justify his racist comments. Hickam derided Lee's concerns as a fellow scientist because she is a woman of colour. He then blocked her, effectively shutting down the conversation about inclusion. As a senior figure in STEM with greater social power, Hickam proves Lee's argument, that only White men's views are allowed respect in STEM.

Lee notes that if we can't get the conversation about diversity and inclusion right, here and now - then how can we ever hope to restart afresh elsewhere?

Why Understanding Colonialism Matters in STEMExploration can happen in many ways, and these do not necessarily have to involve exploitation, enslavement, dispossession, rape, genocide, removal of children from their communities, being forced into missionary settlements, forced to convert religion and violently made to assimilate. Colonialism only happens through violence - including all the methods mentioned, which have happened to Indigenous groups around the world. This colonial violence continues in the present day.

In Australia, our Indigenous population was the first to migrate out of Africa 75,000 years ago. Their population was decimated when Europeans arrived in Australia in 1788. The colonisers declared Australia "terra nullius" (uninhabited land). Indigenous Australians, like all other Indigenous groups, have suffered violence and inequalities ever since. In fact, right now, the Australian Government is forcing 150 Indigenous communities off their ancestral lands in Western Australia. This will make 12,000 Aboriginal people refugees in their own country (http://goo.gl/G8ebIA).

Why is this happening? Because the Government says living in these lands is not economically viable and wanting to live there is a "lifestyle choice" the Government does not support. More to the point, these communities are set up on land that is rich in natural resources. Other parts of Western Australia are just as remote, yet business and Government made them viable so mining towns could be set up.

So the point Lee makes about colonial narratives is valid and pressing: rich White men make decisions that adversely affect minorities. They talk about these decisions in ways that replicate historical violence, and in so doing, they compound inequalities happening on Earth. Lee is saying: why would Mars be any different if Indigenous and POC perspectives are being forced out of discussions and policy making?

Imagine you are a young Indigenous child intrigued about space. Indigenous groups, including in Australia, already have many sacred stories about the stars. What a great way to connect them with STEM! But now imagine they see these media stories, where White men conceive of space travel in colonial terms, while at the same time they are living through their communities being pushed off their lands. They also see only a few brave people of colour, like Lee, standing up to big-name White men in STEM, while they and other so-called "allies" are calling this Black scientist "silly."

We have so few Indigenous groups in STEM as it is; the numbers in astronomy can be counted in one hand when we look at gender breakdowns.* So why would these minorities want to join STEM if White scientists want to assert their right to ignore historical violence? STEM pushes out minorities in many ways; this is just one example.

Language is not benign. Language matters for diversity and inclusion, as do the ideas informing our choice of words, and the stories we choose to weave, and those we ignore.

Making STEM InclusiveLee's Storify only covers the first day of comments; Lee has been fending off racist push-back for the past couple of days. I encourage you to go to Lee's Twitter feed to read how she further connects her argument to discussions about diversity in STEM.

Lee's key point is on the importance of framing STEM stories in a more inclusive manner. It's not just words; it's the thinking behind it that also influences how we teach and learn science; it's how existing policies are maintained; it's how some voices continue to shout down Others.

For an complementary perspective, see +Glendon Mellow's tweets, where he uses an art metaphor. The culture, training and perspective of the first artists sent to Mars will shape how the new world is designed. If that view is White, male and framed around colonialism, that will be reflected in the infrastructure. http://goo.gl/3DsxLN

The conversation I want to lead here is: how can we learn from Lee's arguments to make science more inclusive? How might we use this perspective in our teaching and advocacy? How can we use this to support diversity and inclusion?

Happy to talk further on this - note that I don't allow abuse or derailment on my threads.

Christian's Failure of CourageDear Christians: I know you are earnest in your faith. So were the martyrs of the early church. They died for their faith. What sacrifice are you willing to make for yours?

Too many contemporary Christians are asking some members of the public to sacrifice their right to services otherwise provided to everyone else. How does discrimination affirm Christian values? If serving all members of the public violates your faith, and if you truly have the courage of your convictions, then you need to find some other line of work.

If you have a lunch counter serving the public, of which the Black community is a part, and your faith prohibits you from serving them, you are in the wrong business.

If you are a legislator involved in the governance of the public, of which the Black community is a part, and your religion prohibits you from allowing integration or interracial marriage, you are in the wrong business.

If you are a pharmacist providing your services to the public, of which women are the majority, and your faith prohibits you from filling a prescription for contraception, you are in the wrong business.

If you are a baker selling your products to the public, of which the LGBT community is a part, and your religion prohibits you from serving that community, you are in the wrong business.

If you are a photographer providing your services to the public, of which the LGBT community is a part, and your religion prohibits you from serving that community, you are in the wrong business.

Complaining about how not letting you discriminate is discrimination is, quite honestly, the act of a coward. Show that you have the courage of your convictions. Get another job.

The fact is this. The cost of living up to your convictions needs to be born by you, not by others. Being true to your religious values requires sacrifice on your part. Its not a price to be paid by the public.

If you spend a lot of time typing plain text, writing programs or HTML, you can save much of that time by using a good editor and using it effectively. This paper will present guidelines and hints for doing your work more quickly and with fewer mistakes. The open source text editor Vim (Vi ...

Today we commemorate the birthday of Amalie Emmy Noether. Emmy Noether was born to a Jewish family in the Bavarian town of Erlangen; her father was mathematician Max Noether. Emmy originally planned to teach French and English after passing the required examinations, but instead studied mathematics at the University of Erlangen, where her father lectured. She is renowned for her groundbreaking contributions to abstract algebra and theoretical physics. She revolutionized the theories of rings, fields, and algebras, and top notch pioneers in their fields such as Pavel Alexandrov, Albert Einstein, Jean Dieudonné, Hermann Weyl, et al. described her as the most important woman in the history of mathematics.In my opinion, in physics the most important discovery of her's is the one-to-one correspondence between continuous symmetries on one side and conserved quantities on the other side -- Noether's theorem. It is a deep physical insight whose origin and meaning became clear later in quantum mechanics, where conserved quantities generate the symmetry transformations. Now, you may have thought many a times as to what is "Energy". The answer lies in Noether's theorem. The time evolution in quantum mechanics is governed by the Hamiltonian trough the time evolution operator U= exp (iHt). Noether's theorem again show us that there is a relationship between Energy (Through the Hamiltonian) and system's time evolution. Or in other words, Noether's theorem guarantees that there's a number that's conserved whenever there's time translational symmetry, or in other words the quantity whose conservation law can be derived from the time-translation symmetry is referred to as energy. From spatial translations, one obtains the momentum; from spatial rotations, one can derive the components of the angular momentum; Galilean or Lorentz symmetries are linked to the constant velocity of the center of mass, so on and so forth. Here's a note I wrote on Noether's theorem. Around 1915 when David Hilbert and Felix Klein wanted her to be a Privatdozent in Göttingen, there was some opposition. A female teacher would be viewed as a humiliating experience for the chauvinistic society! However, she spent four years lecturing under Hilbert's name. Her habilitation was approved in 1919, allowing her to obtain the rank of Privatdozent. Noether was an excellent teacher and never claimed credit for work she wouldn't deserve. Unfortunately one of her students, Werner Weber, later helped Adolf Hitler to get rid of her in 1933. She moved to Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania. Even there she had to face the "prevalent" male chauvinism.Contributions and Publications by Emmy Noether: http://bit.ly/cR6pImA very good article on Emmy Noether from Wikipedia (This happens to be today's featured article in Wikipedia): http://bit.ly/12bhAy
Noether's application for admission to the University of Erlangen and three curricula vitae. The first of these is in Emmy Noether's own handwriting (In German): http://bit.ly/9L80ipSome memories of Noether: http://bit.ly/1eBc6UA
Here's an important paper showing the importance of Noether's work: http://arxiv.org/pdf/physics/9807044v2.pdfAnd, here's translation of Noether's Theorems in English: http://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0503066Sadly, male chauvinism still exists in many parts of the world, because of which many potential "could be" Noether are denied education. And its a matter of shame that Noether was also a victim of sexism, like many others. In spite of that, against all odds, she made remarkable contributions in the "magnanimous" world of Mathematics, and Theoretical Physics.Image Courtesy: Pioneering Women Of Physicshttp://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/news/pioneering-women-physics